Marital affairs, adultery and general naughtiness

We often laugh merrily when a celebrity gets caught in-flagrante outside their marriage. We probably – fairly or unfairly – assume that the emotional damage to their other half might at least be assuaged by some cash, a TV appearance or two or maybe a serialised autobiography deal.

Away from the limelight, those whose partners have cheated can of course face isolation, poverty and emotional heartbreak. And in some parts of the world, even worse fates await those who get caught themselves.

Islamist hardliners in Somalia recently stoned Abas Hussein Abdirahman, 33, to death in front of a crowd of onlookers in the port town of Merka. This is the third such stoning in 2009 and marks the extreme end of anti-adultery feeling. While few of us would condone cheating, we’d probably draw the line at stoning the cheat. Even Somalia’s president – and such a post is very loosely defined in that part of the world at the moment – has felt compelled tp condemn the stoning as ‘un-islamic’.

Nontheless, the good townsfolk of Merka are waiting for the Other Women in this sorry case to give birth so they can stone her too. We’re inclined to say that that is pretty low.